Chuck are you saying that you did not express grief, outrage, anger,
sympathy or concern in this NG after 9-11-01?

Yes you did.

So why none now?

As recently as four years ago, this forum was a lot different. There
were certainly off-topic discussions and philosophical disagreements-
but a greater number of people behaved like ladies and gentlemen.
Differences of opinion were not routinely expressed with insults and
profane name calling. We didn't have 3-4 posters trying to pose as an
group of a dozen or more by changing handles several times a day. There
were a lot of boaters here, then. Now about half of the regular posters
almost never mention boats or boating- and a greater number of people
from all political persuasions are here solely for the purpose of
starting fights with people on their "list". Back a few years ago,
every discussion wasn't "personal"- but now any discussion that doesn't
start out on a personal level gets dragged off in that direction by the
4th or 5th post.

I started to type out something early this morning, just after the
London bombings and then said, "No. Hell no. A lot of innocent people
died and a whole lot more were injured, some seriously, and why drag
that through the rec.boats mud only to start a predictable series of
accusations about George Bush, liberals, Harry Krause, labor unions,
third-party contract torture, the Patriot Act, etc. Why not respect the
magnitude of the loss by either discussing it in a dignified forum, or
keeping silent all together?"



And you refer now to *nastigrams*? What the hell do those have to do with
me asking for folks to keep their thoughts and prayers with those who died
or are suffering as result of the London terrorist bombings?



Read the thread, Jim. You lamented that you didn't get much response to
your
"pray for the victims" post, implying that there might not be much
concern among the rec.boats group. I then commented that the number of
personal nastigrams was way down for the day, and suggested that
perhaps that fact was itself a sort of response. There was never any
attempt to characterize your "pray for the victims" post as a
nastigram. The question should be, "What the hell does you observation
about the relative lack of nastigrams have to do with my complaint
about a lack of response?" (The answer is plainly evident, but only if
you actually read the thread). Are you seeking offense where none was
intended?

The rest of the group seems to have avoided using this tragedy as a
forum for personal dispute. That's good. We should do the same.